City Streets Pressed Into Service for Catholics

On Ash Wednesday, the Catholic Church went into the streets.

In a novel attempt to reach more of their faithful, volunteers with two parishes in predominantly Latino sections of Orange County set up portable altars in apartments, homes and yards, and marked the beginning of Lent for anyone who showed up.

The makeshift services brought out hundreds, and turned parts of Stanton and Anaheim into street fairs of solemn celebration.

“I’m here to take the ash,” said Albert Lujan, 16, a 10th-grader at Loara High School. “I’ve been going for as long as I can remember.”

Lujan stood in line with more than 250 people outside an apartment building in the Jeffrey-Lynne neighborhood, facing a card table and a crucifix. Sister Catalina Bayardo of St. Boniface Church and two volunteers performed the ceremonies.

Behind the card table, a manila envelope taped to a window announced the activity: “Ceniza Aqui.” Ashes here.

The neighborhood ceremonies are the project of St. Boniface and St. Polycarp Catholic churches, whose parishes cover parts of Anaheim, Stanton, Cypress and Garden Grove. The idea is that with the churches already overflowing, many more people would celebrate Ash Wednesday if they had the chance.

The priests also figured that many working-class families lacked the time or the transportation to make the trip.

“It’s people who make up a religion; the church is only one place to practice it,” said Father Ed Poettgen of St. Polycarp Catholic Church in Stanton. “Our mission is to help enhance people’s spiritual lives wherever they are.”

The project was begun several years ago at St. Boniface, where Father Poettgen used to do his work. When he moved to St. Polycarp 2 1/2 years ago, he carried the idea with him.

While thousands across Orange County marked the beginning of Lent by going to church, hundreds turned out to the temporary altars as well.

St. Polycarp offered services at seven sites, including apartments and homes. St. Boniface offered services for the Jeffrey-Lynne neighborhood in a small yard at the Lynn and Michelle streets. The services were conducted in Spanish.

“A lot of us here do not have transportation,” said Martha Herrera, who came to the service at Lynn and Michelle streets with her grandmother and friend. “All my life I have been going to these. Before this, my parents took me.”

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, the period of 40 weekdays of fasting and abstinence leading up to Easter. It is a ritual intended to convey sacrifice and renewal, and participants mark the ceremony by receiving ashes, in the sign of a cross, on their foreheads.

The services in the Jeffrey-Lynne neighborhood, solemn near the altar, took on the air of a street fair farther way. As Sister Catalina delivered the prayers, children played hockey in the streets. Kids showed up on their bikes, mothers with strollers, fathers with sons. Across the street, a neighbor opened up his mobile kitchen and sold snacks.

“When are they going to do the thing for my forehead?” asked Julieta Ochoa, a 10-year-old waiting in line. Her mother and father were taking English classes and would go later, she said.

Clara Rodriguez, who lives just down the street, stopped by with a table napkin to pick up some ashes to take to her invalid son. She stood on the sidewalk and watched for a while as others went through the ritual.

“It’s a beautiful ceremony,” she said.

Oscar Picazo, a Jeffrey-Lynne resident who helped with the ceremony, said that for many people of Mexican descent, Ash Wednesday holds a special place.

“People may not go to Mass every Sunday, they may skip confession, but they will always go to Ash Wednesday,” Picazo said.

Picazo figured that many more would come to the ceremony by the night’s end. By nightfall, dozens were lining up and waiting patiently to hear the prayers offered by Sister Catalina.

“From dust we came,” she told the assembled crowd, “and to dust we will return.”